I didn't realize this would require so much knowledge of the Buffy universe. I think there was a decent attempt to fill in some gaps for new readers, but there was also so much going on in the story itself that it was hard to get a handle on what exactly was happening.

Disclaimer: received an ARC, my thoughts are my own.

TW: bi-phobia, Queer phobia/homophobia (depends on how you view Willow, for me she's bi)

ARRGGHHH this was annoying, not in the way you may think.
Only that if it had been written more in the end of late teens near New adult, would've made it a 3 star read, and if it wasn't so obviously bi-phobic, also never said explicitly in the series she is bi/lesbian, in the series she dates Oz and then falls in love with Tara after their breakup. It read too young for me, too YA and was slightly predictable.

For context I love buffy the vampire slayer TV series and watched it all a couple of times in the past. I liked the Scooby Doo-ish air to it and being back in that world, I feel like the author brought it back in a way that was nice and made sense for the buffy reality.

The story, while containing a nostalgic aspect to it was not really captivating due to , for me , the way it read very YA-ish. I feel like a world with so much gore, death and depth needed more, this felt like a childproof buffy series. This had a lot of appearances from the old character, but a lot of references would make it hard to read for someone who had never seen the series as it has almost no worldbuilding.

Willow to me as a young queer teen made me realize I was bi, she had had a boyfriend and then a girlfriend, I LOVED her arc. the way the story portrayed as "no she's straight a spell gone wrong made her sexuality/non-con made her bi/gay" was deplorable and very insulting to me. To make her be the love triangle trope with that on top of she's not really queer was disgusting. In the book she is forced to say "I am gay" and defend herself which should never be the case with how nicely it was handled in the show, there was no need to do that.
Anyhow, annoyed.
1/5 stars
Bookarina
(a bi and proud person, we are in 2022 people this is not okay & never will be)

The sister of an activated Slayer, the daughter of a powerful witch, and a jock werewolf are thrown into the endless fight against evil when an unexpected incident causes all of the Slayers to die. Buffy is gone, and the vampires are readying to strike... The new Slayer? WIllow's witchy daughter.

Kendra Blake has fans, both new and old, return to Sunnydale, where vampires sulk in the cemeteries at night, and the high school is built on an opening to Hell. Usual stuff, if you're familiar with the canon. There are enough references to satisfy fans and twists with the world-building (RIP the vegetarian vampires). With using Frankie and Hally as surrogates for readers – Frankie for established fans and Haley for new, Blake knows how to hand out information in a way that doesn't overwhelm the younger audience the book is aimed at. There are also several wonderful additions for established fans, the super soakers full of Holy Water, Spike as an exasperated mentor, etc. I love how Blake wrote Frankie inheriting the best and worst traits of her mother and the dynamic she has with the new and old Scoobies. Spike is the best great-great-great granduncle a witch-Slayer could ever ask for!

However, In Every Generation still reads like a clunky book with all POVs. I wish Blake had streamlined some of them, sticking with a set few instead of hopping in the heads of additional vampire mooks and background villains. While reading, I debated on skipping chapters to get to a character that I preferred. (Even if it meant reading passages that caused me to raise my eyebrow at the dynamic Oz and Willow had. I love them at co-parents, but there were times when the vibe felt...uh...romantic.).

Blake wrote a fun book with a punchy enough cliffhanger that will cause readers to wait impatiently for the next addition in the trilogy.

All opinions are my own. NetGalley and Disney Hyperion provided a copy.

Rating: Solid Book

In Every Generation by Kendare Blake is a new entry in the Buffyverse. I don't believe that it is actual canon because it doesn't pick up where the comics lead off, but it sort of continues the story of the TV show, 16ish years later.

I had some mixed feelings about this book, which leads to my 3 star rating. On the one hand, I love Buffy and enjoy being back in Sunnydale and seeing some old faces. On the other hand, I don't like the way that some things were handled or portrayed, and I didn't care much about the characters.

I did appreciate that we got to see and hear about a lot of the old faces. There were a lot of fun references to things from the show like Spike's librarian mug and the hyena exhibit at the zoo. I feel like the quips and banter are very similar to that of the show. It didn't work quite as well in the written format for me though, and I feel like I knew the older characters well enough that i could pick up on the nuance of the way they delivered the lines, but that was sort of lost with the younger crowd. I also liked seeing the different bits of the story updated for a more modern world. It was amusing to see how they react to a new, updated high school library, and to see the way that the foes incorporate technology that just wasn't around when Buffy filmed.

Some things I didn't love though:
- I didn't like that almost all the women that made Buffy so great were essentially cut out of this story (not a spoiler as this is essential to the setup of this story)
- There was a bunch of weird menstruation jokes that just landed really weird
- I felt like the author was pushing the Willow/Oz relationship to be a romantic one, which I did not appreciate as Willow has firmly established herself to be gay both in the show and in this book.
- I feel like the story was written with thought of how it would translate to the screen, which I think would make for a better story, but also made it feel oddly stilted.
- There was a weird replay of the Angel-Buffy dynamic and I wasn't a fan
- I didn't care much for the new characters

Overall, if you are a Buffy fan, this may be a fun read for you. Personally, I appreciated the Slayer series by Kiersten White a bit more because it was like a splinter story within the world that didn't try to take the original story and build off it, but it was still fun to be back in the world and to see slayer-ness happen over the course of In Every Generation. Of course, if anything in the above list would put you off, I would stay away. Also, I don't see this finding great success with a crowd of new readers just because I had to rely so much on my nostalgia for the show to enjoy it, but maybe someone could find their way to the show because of it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Disney Hyperion for the advance reading copy. This book releases on January 4, 2022.

A lot of this book was confusing because I am not familiar with the Buffyverse. I’d probably rate it higher if I knew more about the show,

I loved coming back to the Buffy verse. So many good memories. The author does a great job of embodying the voices of the original cast as well as introducing us to the next generation and new characters. I felt she nailed Spike. Team Spike! We were left with some unresolved items as this is meant to be a series. Just makes me want to watch reruns until the next book.

I think I'd have enjoyed this one more if I had seen the tv show before. It was still enjoyable though and I know Buffy fans would love it

Kendare Blake's In Every Generation begins a brand-new reimagining of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer universe. This story takes place 18 years after the curtains fell on the Buffy TV series. This series features the next generation of Scoobies and Slayers who must defeat a powerful new evil. A Buffy superfan herself, Blake deftly creates a new story within the Buffy world, fresh and exciting enough for those unfamiliar with the series, and rich enough to satisfy existing fans. This series is timed to launch with the 25th anniversary of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV show, when hunger for all-things Buffy will be high.

16-year-old Hailey Larsson is the younger sister of a Slayer named Vi. Vi and her fellow slayers are getting together this year for something called Slayerfest which is a regular gathering of all the remaining slayers in Halifax. But something goes horribly wrong. Hailey has been kept secret by Vi who wanted to protect her. Hailey has grown up knowing about the supernatural world and knowing she has to keep it a secret. She has also secretly been training so that she could help her sister. When Spike, Vi's watcher, shows up at her house, Hailey finds herself taken to Sunnydale, the former home of Buffy and her Scooby gang.

16-year-old Frankie Rosenberg is a sophomore at New Sunnydale High School, and the daughter of the most powerful witch in Sunnydale history. She calls herself an eco-witch. Her mom, Willow, is slowly teaching Frankie magic on the condition that she use it to better the world. But Frankie’s happily quiet life is upended when Hailey & Spike show up with news that the annual Slayer convention has been the target of an attack, and all the Slayers—including Buffy, Faith, and Hailey’s older sister Vi—might be dead. That means it’s time for this generation’s Slayer to be born.

And, for the first time in history, Frankie is the first Slayer Witch. Gone are the days of one watcher, and one slayer. Girls now are magically chosen at birth to be the next slayer if one dies before they are ready. In fact, Giles, one of the original Buffy Watchers, is so far off the screen that he is not a factor in this story. Frankie's origin story is pretty interesting and no, I am not going to spoil anything. Frankie and her new friends and old friends have to deal with a dangerous character called Hunter of Thrace, as well as the Countess who has been told that Sunnydale is free of slayers.

I understand that there are some of you folks who haven't watched the original Buffy TV show, so, Spike (James Marsters), Willow (Alyson Hannigan), Oz (Seth Green) are active characters from the series. Xander, with Buffy's sister Dawn, calls in with regular updates often and things don't look so good for our beloved Slayers. Vi was the slayer played by Felicia Day in the last season of Buffy. Sigmund, a half-demon who is the son of one of Willow’s demon friends, is a new character who steps up and stays to help out.

One of the hardest things to do as a reviewer is to stay as far away from spoilers as possible. No, I will not tell you which slayers are no longer with us. I will say that there is a brief appearance by one of them who then immediately dashes off stage as soon as the villain is defeated. The author does her best to incorporate the Buffy-style campy dialogue and it's nice to see that Frankie is a bit like Buffy in that she never expected to be chosen as the next Slayer. With the gaping whole of an ending, I am definitely eager to see what happens next, and whether or not we will get the answers we need about any possible survivors.

I discovered Buffy the Vampire Slayer in my early twenties as a young married woman, but I immediately fell in love with everything about the show. To this day, it remains my favorite television show of all time. With that, of course I had to read Kendare Blake's addition to the Buffyverse, In Every Generation.

Sadly, I didn't love In Every Generation as much as I hoped I would. It is not a bad story. Ms. Blake incorporates all of the charm that made BTVS so great. Therein lies the problem though. It doesn't feel new or original. In fact, it feels a bit formulaic even while it makes fun of itself for being so.

At the same time, Frankie's voice is just so young. For someone who grew up with Willow Rosenberg as her mother, surrounded by the world of slayers and demons, you would think she would have a bit more world-weariness to her. Instead, she is every bit the ingenue, and I struggled to accept that about her. I still wrestle with the idea that someone with all of her knowledge and close ties to the previous Sunnydale catastrophes would be so clueless or disregard her teachings as much as she does.

Still, the nostalgia factor is huge, and Ms. Blake capitalizes on every bit of it. Nothing is sacred to this brand-new batch of Scoobies. The mocking of slayer/demon romances, fashion choices in the 90s, and references to hyenas, people breaking out into song, and other one-off episodes abound. It is a delight to discover each one of them.

The other area in which In Every Generation excels is the new Big Bad. Ms. Blake's choice is unique and rather clever given all that Buffy faced. I particularly like the juxtaposition between history and fantasy (and a certain platinum-blonde's reaction to the mere idea of this foe).

Plus, the story's overarching mystery captured my imagination. I never knew which way Ms. Blake was going to take the plot. Even now, after reading book one, I see a lot of potential for some amazing stories with the main arc spanning all of them without getting dull. We learn just enough about this Big Bad to know there is danger, but the scale of that danger is as yet unknown.

Perhaps my age is showing, but I cannot say I LOVED In Every Generation as much as I LOVE BTVS. There is a lot to like within its pages, and some problem areas as well. I will say that Ms. Blake's story intrigued me enough to keep my interest and make me curious about where she plans to take the next installment. It may not be as good as the original, but then again, so few things are.

I was very skeptical of this book because I LOVE the Buffy TV series, but this book was great. I love the connection between the tv show and this new series. The characters were written really well and I loved all the callbacks to the tv show. I hope this series continues on so that a new generation gets to enjoy what my generation loved.

I have never seen Buffy the Vampire Slayer but I did always want to watch it as a kid and I love Kendare Blake so I wanted to give this a chance. I am so glad I did, the writing is wonderful and while I know I don't have the whole backstory the characters provide enough information that I never felt lost. The characters are wonderfully written and I really enjoyed their banter throughout the story. There are some great twists and all around it is a very compelling book. Hard to put down and I am already excited to see more from these characters.

"In Every Generation" is a book that has promise, but seems to confuse its audience. Is it for new fans or old? Do the readers have knowledge of the Buffy-verse or not? Where Kendare Blake fails is that she attempts to accomplish both, and leaves the readers feeling like something is missing. If the reader is a diehard Buffy-verse fan, they will wonder what happened to Joss Whedon's comic seasons 8-12, the interwoven series that brought continuations of Buffy, Angel and Faith, Spike, Willow, and Giles. If the reader is a potential new fan, they will likely never read another book in the "series." It could have been a fantastic continuation that paid homage to the old, instead it attempted to recapture the magic of Buffy season 1 where a new slayer is brought to Sunnydale and a new gang is created, but it fell flat leaving the new slayer without much development and old characters missing their former growth marks.

While it was fun catching up with the gang, most of the story felt like setup for the next book. I prefer a book, even ones in a series, to be a somewhat complete story.

The premise is that We are now in the home town of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Here we meet some new and some old characters. Most Vampires have been laid to rest- or have they? I have not read or watched any Buffy things before and I was able to keep us. This could be a stand alone novel .

This book was okay. I am sure that die-hard Buffy fans will love it. I have read some previous Kendare Blake stories and loved them. Maybe it was just the continuation of the Buffy story that didn't grab me. It is worth adding to any collection that has Buffy fans.

Captures the spirit, humor, and personalities of the original TV show brilliantly. This book was so fun to read!

I did not realize this was a continuation of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I have not seen the show nor read any of the comics. I do not want to get invested in a series where I might not understand the world or get spoiled.

Don't get me wrong, I was the biggest Buffy fan when I was like 9, and probably shouldn't have been watching it anyways.
This gave me some nostalgia seeing some of the OG characters make a return however it felt very young and fanfic vibes. Which, I understand completely that any sequel to the original is gonna feel Like a fanfic unless written by the creators. Because it basically is.
Also, I might not be the intended audience as it read younger but as someone who grew up with Buffy I had to read it right?

I'm reviewing and rating it non biased and for what it was intended for. Which is the younger generation to get into the vampire slaying Fandom.
If you have no knowledge of the original story you might feel a bit confused at times especially when characters are brought in without background info or when they speak of events that happened in the past or even about the hell mouth which is literally what it is.

I feel the audience will enjoy this more so without that background knowledge because it is intended to be a new Gen thing.

Just leave out the menstruation humor cause wtf was that.

Truth be told this is my very first Kendare Blake book I've ever read, so I was a little hesitant about it when I first started. I'm so glad I kept going though because I absolutely adored this book!!!

https://wejustlovegames.libsyn.com/website/category/ep-104-worst-christmas-ever

Timestamp: 1:00:44

I am a big fan of Buffy so I was very interested to see what this book was about. In parts this title reads like fanfiction and I often wondered if this was canon but in the end it was fun and can introduce new people to the show. You do not need to see the show to understand any of this story but you can get a better understanding of the adult characters if you do. Frankie is Willow's daughter and the two of them have become eco conscious and Frankie practices eco-magic but isn't that great at it. She is friends with Oz's nephew Jake who is also a werewolf, his brother is the one who bit Oz. There is a slayer conference in Halifax and Willow gets word from Xander that there was an explosion and the whole area is a wreck and have no idea about the survival of any of the slayers. The next morning Frankie accidentally breaks several hair ties and rips a pair of jeans....Turns out she is a slayer now. She spends the rest of the book coming to terms with her new abilities and battling demons in Sunnydale while also trying to solve the mystery of what happened at the slayer convention.